ADDRESSES 

AT 

THE  UNVEILING  AND  PRESENTATION  TO 
THE  STATE  OF  THE  STATUE 

OF 

Thomas  Ruffin 

BY  THE 

NORTH  CAROLINA  BAR  ASSOCIATION 


Delivered  in  the  Hall  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  1  February,  191S 


RALEIGH 

Edwards  &  Beotjghton  Printing  Company 

1915 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

On  tlie  evening  of  February  1,  1915,  in  the  Hall  of  the  House 
of  Kepresentatives,  at  Ealeigh,  the  North  Carolina  Bar  Asso- 
ciation presented  to  the  State  of  N^orth  Carolina  a  bronze 
statue  of  the  late  Thomas  Ruffin.  The  statue  was  executed  by 
F,  H.  Packer  of  JSTew  York.  Hon.  H.  G.  Connor,  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  the  Bar  Association,  presided  at  the  exercises. 
An  address  on  the  life  and  character  of  Chief  Justice  Ruffin 
was  delivered  by  Hon.  "Walter  Clark,  Chief  Justice  of  North 
Carolina.  The  statue  was  presented  to  the  State  by  Hon.  J. 
Crawford  Biggs,  President  of  the  North  Carolina  Bar  Associa- 
tion,- and  accepted  on  behalf  of  the  State  by  Governor  Locke 
Craig.  It  was  unveiled  by  Thomas  Ruffin  and  Peter  Browne 
Ruffin,  great-grandchildren  of  Chief  Justice  Ruffin,  and  has 
been  set  up  in  the  State  Administration  Building  in  which  the 
Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina  holds  its  sessions. 


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OPENING  REMARKS 


By  Hon.  H.  G.  Connor,  United  States  Judge  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Xorth  Carolina. 

^  Among  the  purposes  for  which  the  IS^rth  Carolina  Bar  Asso- 
ciation was  formed  and  maintains  its  organization,  is  the  per- 
petuation of  the  memory  of  those  who,  at  the  Bar  and  on  the 
Bench  have,  by  rendering  service  to  the  State,  won  distinction 
and  are,  to  this  and  future  generations,  exemplars  of  life  and 
conduct.     We  conceive  that   in  rendering  this  service,  we  not 
only  contribute  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  the  Commonwealth, 
but  set  an  example  worthy  of  emulation,  to  other  organizations 
of  our  citizens  to  contribute  in  like  manner  to  the  perpetuation 
of  like  characters  in  the  varied  departments  of  service  to  the 
State.     Inspiration  to  higher  and  nobler  lives,  we  are  taught, 
is  imparted  not  alone  by  the  story  of  the  life  and  work  of  the 
great  and  good,  but  in  the  preservation  of  their  form  and  fea- 
ture.by  the  art  of  the  painter  and  the  sculptor.     In  pursuance 
of  this  purpose  and,  we  think,  in  performance  of  this  service,  the 
N"orth  Carolina  Bar  Association  has,  by  its  own  contribution, 
aided  and  supplemented  by  the  J^orth  Carolina  Historical  Com- 
mission and  others  who  honored  his  memory,  caused  to  be  cast  in 
bronze  a  statue  of  the  form  and  face  of  one  who,  among  notable 
and  ^  worthy    associates,    in    like    position,    has    rendered    high 
service,  we  think  it  is  not  exaggeration  to  say,  is  recognized  as 
North   Carolina's  Great   Chief   Justice,   Thomas   Riiffin.     The 
work  of  the  artist  having  been  completed,  the  privilege  and  duty 
of  taking  order  for  its  placing  and  presentation  to  the  State, 
was  committed  to  a  committee,  named  by  the  Association,  com- 
posed of  Mrs.   George  P.   Collins,   Mrs.   Charles   R.    Thomas, 
Major  John  W.  Graham,  Hon.  Francis  Nash,  Col.  Bennehan 
Cameron,  A.  B.  Andrews,  Jr.,  Esq.,  and  to  me  was  accorded 
the  honor  of  being  named  Chairman.     The  statue  is  the  work  of 
Mr.    Frank    H.    Packer,    a   justly    celebrated    artist.     It    will 
stand  as  a  memorial  of  the  past,  and  an  inspiration  for  the 


6  Thomas  Euffin 

future,  at  the  entrance  of  the  State's  Administration  Building, 
wherein  her  Supreme  Court  sits.  Having  appointed  this  hour 
for  the  completion  of  our  undertaking,  we  have  assembled  in 
this,  the  Hall  of  the  Eepresentatives  of  the  people,  to  hear  from 
one  amply  fitted  to  tell  the  story  of  his  life,  and  to  present  with 
appropriate,  simple  and  yet  dignified,  ceremony,  to  the  State 
the  statue  of  Thomas  Euffin.  The  Eight  Eeverend  Joseph 
Blount  Cheshire,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  North  Carolina,  will 
invoke  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  work  in  which  we  are  about 
to  engage. 


THOMAS   RUFFIN 


By  Walter  Clark,  Chief  Justice  of  North  Carolina. 

''Man  is  a  noble  animal,  splendid  in  ashes,  pompous  in  the 
grave,  solemnizing  nativities  and  deaths  with  equal  lustre,  nor 
omitting  ceremonies  of  bravery  in  the  infamy  of  his  nature." 
When  a  great  State  and  a  great  profession  present  to  the  public 
this  memorial  of  a  great  citizen  who  in  his  day  has  served  them 
both  with  fidelity,  it  is  proper  that  some  mention  should  be  made 
of  the  circumstances  which  justify  the  occasion.  These  cere- 
monies and  this  statue  cannot  bring  honor  to  him.  That  is 
beyond  our  power.  The  tale  of  what  he  wrought  is  complete. 
We  can  add  nothing  to  it.  In  the  dreamless  dust  neither  honor 
nor  censure  nor  praise  nor  calumny  can  move  him.  Like  Dun- 
can "-nothing  can  touch  him  further." 

The  significance  of  this  event  is  to  us  and  to  those  who  shall 
come  after  us.  The  honor  is  to  those  who  erect  this  memorial 
and  to  those  who  approve  it.  The  ideals  of  a  nation  are  the 
surest  gauge  of  their  worth  and  of  the  place  they  fill.  Could 
the  star  of  Bethlehem  vanish  in  eternal  night,  men  would  again 
incarnate  as  gods,  and  erect  altars,  statues  and  temples  to  the 
virtues  which  they  chiefly  admire.  We  should  see  well  to  it 
that  no  memorial  is  placed  to  one  who  does  not  measure  up  to 
the  highest  ideals  of  the  people. 

Who  is  this  man  and  what  did  he  do  that  this  brilliant  as- 
semblage should  be  here  and  that  this  statue  should  be  unveiled 
to  excite  the  emulation  of  aspiring  youths  in  the  days  to  come? 
To  few  of  the  sons  of  men  can  this  honor  be  paid,  and  perhaps 
to  fewer  still  should  it  be  rendered.  The  vast  majority  must 
be  content  to  believe  that  their  names  are  in  the  registers  of  God 
though  not  in  the  records  of  man. 

On  a  marble  slab  in  St.  Matthew's  churchyard  in  Hillsboro 
there  is  carved  the  following  inscription  which   sums  up  the 


8  Thomas  Euffin 

salient    features    of    a    long,    useful,    and    most    distinguished 
career : 

THOMAS  RUFFIN, 

The  first  born  of 

Steeling  Rtjffix  and  Axice  Roane. 

Born  at  Newington, 

King  and  Queen  County,  Virginia, 

17  November,  1787. 

Died  at  Hillsboro,  Orange  Co.,  N.  C, 

15  January,  1870. 

Graduated  at  Nassau  Hall, 

Princeton,  N.  J.,  1805, 

Admitted  to  the  Bar  in  N.  C.  in  1808. 

Intermarried  with  Anne  M.  Kirkland, 

9  December,  1809. 

A  member  of  the  State  Legislature,  Speaker  of  the  House 

of  Commons;  a  Trustee  of  the  University,  twice 

Judge  of  the  Superior  Court;  in  1829,  Justice 

of  the  Supreme  Court  in  which  he 

presided  for  19  years  as 

Chief  Justice. 

Labor  ipse  est  voluntas. 

In  the  83d  year  of  his  life,  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties,  ripe 
in  learning  and  in  wisdom,  crowned  with  public  honors  and  confi- 
dence, rich  in  the  affection  of  his  kindred  and  friends,  he  closed  his 
long,  active  and  useful  life  in  the  consolation  of  an  enlightened  and 
humble  Christian  faith. 

"A  man  resolved  and  steady  to  his  trust, 
Inflexible  to  ill  and  obstinately  just." 


This  is  not  the  occasion  for  an  extended  biographical  state- 
ment of  his  services.  It  will  be  possible  to  fill  out  merely  some 
of  the  details  of  that  well  rounded  and  busy  life. 

The  mother  of  Chief  Justice  Kuffin  was  cousin  german  of 
Chief  Justice  Spencer  Roane  of  the  great  State  of  Virginia, 
and  he  was  bom  17  November,  1787,  at  the  residence  of  her 
father,  in  the  county  of  King  and  Queen  in  that  State.  His 
father,  Sterling  Ruffin,  of  a  long  descended  line  of  ancestry,  was 


Thomas  Ritffin  9 

a  resident  of  the  neigliboriiig  county  of  Essex  in  that  State. 
He  was  a  planter  of  means,  but  later  in  life  he  joined  the  Meth- 
odist church  and  served  in  its  ministry  till  his  death. 

His  early  life  was  passed,  like  that  of  most  distinguished  men, 
in  the  country  and  on  a  fami  acquiring  that  sturdy  stock  of 
health  which  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to  breast  the  obstacles 
to  success  in  after  life.  After  attendance  upon  the  neighbor- 
hood schools  he  was  sent  to  Warrenton,  ]^.  C,  and  placed 
under  the  instruction  of  Marcus  George,  an  Irishman,  a  fine 
classical  scholar  and  skillful  instructor,  where  he  had  as  school- 
mates and  friends  many  who  afterwards  attained  prominence 
in  the  State.  Among  them  were  Col.  Cadwallader  Jones,  then 
of  Halifax,  later  of  Orange,  Robert  Brodnax  of  Rockingham 
and  Weldon  IST.  Edwards  of  Orange,  afterwards  a  member  of 
Congress  and  President  of  the  State  Convention  of  1861. 

From  Warrenton  Academy  young  Ruffin  passed  to  iN^assau 
Hall,  Princeton  College,  N.  J.,  where  his  room  mate  was  the 
late  Governor  Iredell,  and  among  his  associates  were  many  who 
afterwards  achieved  high  distinction  in  many  States  of  the 
Union.  He  graduated  in  1805,  being  16th  in  a  class  of  42.  Re- 
turning home  he  entered  the  office  of  David  Robertson  at 
Petersburg,  Va.,  as  a  student  at  law,  and  remained  there  thi'ough 
the  years  1806-7.  Mr.  Robertson  was  a  Scotchman  by  birth, 
the  reporter  of  the  Debates  in  the  Virginia  Convention  which 
adopted  the  Federal  Constitution  and  reporter  of  the  trial  of 
Aaron  Burr  for  high  treason.  He  gained  high  distinction  at 
the  Bar.  Puffin's  associates  under  his  instruction  were  John 
F.  May  who  was  later  Judge  May  of  Petersburg,  and  Winfield 
Scott,  the  hero  later  of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane  in  1812  and 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  of  the  United  States  that  en- 
tered the  city  of  Mexico  in  1846,  Whig  candidate  for  President 
in  1852,  and  head  of  the  army  at  the  outbreak  of  the  great  Civil 
War.  He  met  Judge  Ruffin  after  a  separation  of  47  years  in 
New  York  in  1853  when  the  latter  was  attending  as  a  delegate 
the  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
In  recalling  the  pleasure  of  the  reunion  General  Scott  speaks  of 
their  association  as  law  students  with  manifest  pride  and  pleas- 
ure. He  also  refers  to  his  subsequent  meeting  with  the  Chief 
Justice  in  1861  when  the  latter  was  serving  as  a  member  of  the 


10  Thomas  Ruffust 

Peace  Congress,  and  says  that  if  the  sentiments  of  Ruffin  and 
Crittenden  had  i^revailed  the  sad  infliction  of  the  war,  which 
was  raging  when  he  wrote,  would  have  been  avoided.  A  letter 
from  President  Buchanan  to  Governor  Swain  in  1867  expresses 
the  same  belief. 

In  1807  Rev.  Sterling  Ruffin  removed  to  Rockingham  County, 
N'orth  Carolina,  whither  his  son  accompanied  him.  Though  he 
had  studied  for  two  years  for  the  Bar  he  continued  his  studies  at 
Hillsboro  under  Judge  A.  D.  Murphey  until  his  admission  to 
the  Bar  in  1808.  By  this  thorough  preparation  he  laid  broad 
and  deep  the  foundation  for  his  successful  career.  In  June, 
1809,  he  established  his  home  in  Hillsboro  and  on  9  December  in 
that  year  he  was  married  to  Anne  Kirkland,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  William  Kirkland,  a  prominent  merchant  and  leading  citi- 
zen who  a  few  years  before  had  moved  to  Hillsboro  from  Ayr- 
shire in  Scotland.  The  husband  was  a  young  lawyer  just 
turned  twenty-two  and  the  bride  was  barely  fifteen  years  of  age. 
During  their  married  life  of  over  sixty  years  she  was  the  surest 
resource  and  support  of  her  distinguished  husband  in  good  and 
evil  fortune  and  he  was  her  adoring  lover  to  the  last. 

Young  Ruffin  must  have  been  of  more  than  usual  promise,  for 
in  a  letter  from  Judge  Murphey  to  him  published  in  "Mur- 
phey's  Correspondence,"  written  in  1809  soon  after  Puffin's 
admission  to  the  Bar,  he  expresses  his  confident  assurance  that 
the  young  man  was  destined  to  a  most  distinguished  career. 
His  relations  with  his  instructor  and  friend,  Judge  Murphey,  as 
shown  by  their  correspondence  were  always  close  and  cordial. 

In  1813,  1815  and  1816  Ruffin  was  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Commons  from  the  borough  of  Hillsboro,  which  was  one  of 
the  six  towns  which,  following  the  English  custom,  continued 
to  send  representatives  until  the  adoption  of  the  amended  Con- 
stitution in  1835.  In  1816  he  was  unanimously  chosen  Speaker 
of  the  House.  In  1815  and  1816  the  town  of  Hillsboro  was 
represented  by  Judge  Ruffin  and  the  county  of  Orange  by  Judge 
Murphey  in  the  Senate,  and  Judge  Nash  in  the  House. 

It  is  said  that  on  first  coming  to  the  bar  Judge  Puffin's  efforts 
at  argument  were  diffident,  and  his  speech  hesitating  and  em- 
barrassed.    His  friends  candidly  advised  him  to  abandon  the 


Thomas  Ruffin  11 

profession,  but  he  felt  that  he  had  the  ''root  of  the  matter"  in 
him  and  held  on.  He  was  well  grounded  by  his  studies  in  a 
knowledge  of  the  law,  and  experience  soon  cured  his  defects  of 
speech.  At  a  strong  bar  he  soon  became  a  leader,  and  seven 
years  later,  in  1816,  while  Speaker  of  the  House,  he  was  chosen 
a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  at  the  early  age  of  29,  to  fill  the 
vacancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of  Duncan  Cameron.  This 
position  he  resigned  after  two  years  on  the  circuit,  and  returned 
to  a  lucrative  practice  at  the  bar.  He  was  an  indefatigable 
student,  and  a  frame  of  iron  permitted  him  any  amount  of  ap- 
plication. For  forty-three  weeks  of  the  year  he  had  engage- 
ments in  Court  which  he  kept  regardless  of  weather  and  bad 
roads.  He  was  also  for  one  or  two  terms  reporter  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  but  was  compelled  to  relinquish  the  position  by 
the  demands  of  his  practice.  His  work  as  reporter  will  be 
found  in  the  first  part  of  8  N.  C.  Eeports  (1  Hawks).  In  the 
summer  of  1825,  upon  the  resignation  of  Judge  Badger,  he 
again  accepted  the  position  of  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  and 
during  the  next  three  years  he  administered  its  duties  in  such  a 
manner  that  he  was  generally  desigTiated  by  public  opinion  for 
the  succession  to  the  Supreme  Court  upon  the  occurrence  of  the 
first  vacancy.  In  1824  he  was  a  candidate  upon  the  electoral 
ticket  in  favor  of  William  H.  Crawford  for  President. 

In  the  fall  of  1828  the  stockholders  of  the  State  Bank  of 
N"orth  Carolina,  at  Raleigh,  at  whose  head  were  Col.  William 
Polk,  Peter  Browne  and  Judge  Duncan  Cameron,  in  view  of 
its  embarrassments  and  threatened  litigation,  prevailed  upon 
him  to  take  the  presidency  of  the  bank  with  an  increased  salary 
and  with  the  privilege  of  practicing  his  profession.  He  again 
resigned  his  Judgeship  and  accepting  the  offer,  by  his  diligence 
and  practical  business  knowledge  and  the  faith  imparted  by  his 
acceptance  of  its  headshii),  he  effectually  reinstated  the  bank  in 
public  confidence,  and  relieved  it  of  its  embarrassments.  About 
this  time,  there  being  a  vacancy  in  the  United  States  Senator- 
ship  by  the  appointment  of  Governor  Branch  to  the  head  of  the 
ISTavy  Department,  he  was  solicited  to  become  a  candidate  for 
the  vacancy,  with  strong  prospects  of  success.  This  he  de- 
clined, saying  as  he  often  did,  that  "after  the  labor  and  atten- 


12  Thomas  Ruffin 

tion  he  had  bestowed  upon  his  profession  he  desired  to  go  down 
to  posterity  as  a  lawyer."  While  employed  in  the  affairs  of 
the  bank  he  still  remained  in  full  practice  at  the  bar,  and  his 
reputation  as  a  lawyer  suffered  no  eclipse.  On  the  death  of 
Chief  Justice  Taylor  in  1829,  Governor  Owen  appointed  to  the 
Supreme  Court  Judge  Toomer,  a^  lawyer  of  deserved  eminence 
in  the  profession,  and  of  a  singularly  pure  and  elevated  char- 
acter; but  public  opinion  and  the  sentiment  of  the  bar  had  so 
decidedly  marked  out  Judge  Ruffin  for  the  succession  that  when 
the  Legislature  met  in  the  fall  of  that  year  he  was  elected  to  the 
position. 

In  1833,  upon  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Henderson,  William 
Gaston  was  elected  to  the  Bench.  At  that  time  the  Chief  Jus- 
ticeship was  not,  as  now,  a  distinct  office,  but  one  of  the  three 
Judges  then  composing  the  Court  was  chosen  as  Chief  Justice  by 
his  two  associates.  Judge  Gaston  was  the  older  man  and  had 
a  national  reputation  from  his  sendees  in  Congress  and  in  many 
notable  cases  at  the  Bar.  On  the  other  hand  Ruffin  had  served, 
with  reputation  second  to  none,  not  only  on  the  Superior  Court 
Bench  but  for  four  years  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  The  rela- 
tions between  him  and  Judge  Gaston  were  exceedingly  cordial 
and  indeed  intimate.  The  two  men  would  have  voted  for  each 
other  and  the  other  Judge  (Daniel)  doubtless  wished  to  be 
spared  the  choice  between  them.  In  this  emergency,  as  is 
stated  in  a  letter  from  Gaston  to  Chancellor  Kent,  they  resorted 
to  the  blind  goddess  and  drew  lots.  The  result  was  in  favor  of 
Ruffin  who  thereafter  presided  for  nineteen  years  as  Chief 
Justice. 

In  the  autumn  of  1852  while  at  the  height  of  his  fame  and 
not  yet  oppressed  by  the  weight  of  years  he  resigned  office,  in- 
tending to  retire  forever  from  the  profession  and  the  studies  in 
which  he  had  won  renown.  But  in  1858,  on  the  death  of  his 
friend  and  successor.  Chief  Justice  Nash,  he  was  recalled  by 
the  almost  unanimous  voice  of  the  Legislature,  though  in  his 
72d  year,  to  resume  his  place  upon  the  Supreme  Court  Bench. 
This  he  did  but  did  not  insist  upon  resuming  the  Chief  Justice- 
ship which  went  to  Judge  Pearson.  After  something  more 
than  a  year's  service  he  found  the  duties  somewhat  irksome  after 


Thomas  Ruffin  13 

six  years  of  leisure  and  resigned  again.  It  was  his  singular  for- 
tune to  have  resigned  twice  from  both  the  Superior  and  Su- 
preme Courts.  In  1854  the  General  Assembly  being  Demo- 
cratic, Chief  Justice  Ruffin's  name  was  among  those  presented 
by  their  friends  for  one  of  the  two  United  States  Senatorships 
then  vacant,  but  after  a  long  contest  Governor  Reid  and  Judge 
Biggs  were  chosen. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  also  that  in  1848  all  three  of  the  Supreme 
Court  Judges  (Ruffin,  Nash  and  Battle),  the  Governor  (Gra- 
ham) and  one  of  the  United  States  Senators  (Mangum)  were 
all  from  the  single  county  of  Orange,  and  in  1841  both  Senators 
(Graham  and  Mangum)  were  elected  by  the  Legislature  from 
the  same  county  of  Orange  in  which  the  Chief  Justice  then  re- 
sided. The  only  situation  at  all  parallel,  in  this  State,  occurred 
in  1815  when  the  Governor  (Miller),  both  United  States  Sena- 
tors (Macon  and  Turner),  and  Judge  Hall  were  all  from  the 
county  of  Warren.  It  was  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  these 
two  U.  S.  Senators  (Macon  and  Turner)  had  served  in  the 
Revolutionary  "War  together  as  privates  in  the  same  company. 

During  the  six  years  between  Chief  Justice  Ruffin's  resigna- 
tion in  1852  and  his  reelection  in  1858  and  again  after  his  sec- 
ond 'resignation  in  1859  he  accepted  the  office  of  Justice  of  the 
Peace  in  Alamance  County  to  which  he  had  then  removed,  and 
he  held  the  county  court  with  the  lay  justices  as  their  presiding 
justice.  Another  eminent  lawyer,  Thomas  P.  Devereux,  hav- 
ing retired  from  the  Bar,  upon  falling  heir  to  a  princely  for- 
tune, discharged  the  same  duty  for  years  as  presiding  justice  of 
the  county  court  of  Halifax;  and  George  E.  Badger,  ex-U.  S. 
Senator,  ex-Secretary  of  the  K'avy,  and  ex-Judge,  presided  as  a 
Justice  of  the  Peace  in  the  county  court  of  Wake,  and  there 
were  other  instances  of  like  nature.  It  is  related  that  a  North- 
erner of  some  distinction  being  at  the  Yarborough  House  in 
Raleigh  walked  across  to  the  courthouse  on  one  occasion  when 
Mr.  Badger  was  presiding  with  his  fellow- justices  of  the  peace, 
and  on  his  return  to  the  hotel  said  with  evident  sincerity,  "I  do 
not  know  who  that  old  fellow  in  the  middle  is,  but  he  certainly 
is  no  fool." 

The  law  is  well  said  to  be  a  "jealous  mistress,"  but  Judge 
Ruffin  took  an  intelligent  and  practical  part  in  stock  raising. 


14  Thomas  Euffin 

orcliards,  and  agriculture  and  found  his  recreation  in  those  pur- 
suits. It  was  no  mere  compliment  to  a  distinguished  citizen 
that  the  State  Agricultural  Society  of  North  Carolina  elected 
him  in  1854  to  its  presidency  and  retained  him  in  that  position 
for  six  years.  By  his  industry,  frugality  and  capacity  for  the 
management  of  property  he  accumulated  a  large  estate. 

Until  superseded  by  the  changes  in  1868,  he  had  been  for 
many  years  the  oldest  Tnistee  of  the  State  University,  and 
took  an  active  interest  in  promoting  its  v/elfare.  For  more 
than  forty  years  a  communicant  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  he  was  one  of  its  most  active  members  in  this  State  and 
more  than  once  represented  the  Diocese  in  the  Triennial  General 
Convention.  Though  a  follower  of  Jefferson  in  politics  he  was 
a  warm  admirer  and  personal  friend  of  Marshall  and  Kent. 

As  an  advocate,  Chief  Justice  Ruffin  was  vehement  but  logical. 
It  is  said  that  in  the  heat  of  argument  to  the  jury  he  would  rap 
the  floor  with  his  knuckles.  He  placed  small  reliance  on  rheto- 
ric and  appeals  to  the  imagination.  He  was  physically  and 
mentally  capable  of  vast  application  and  he  did  not  spare  him- 
self any  amount  of  labor.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  exercising 
his  mental  faculties  by  daily  going  over  the  demonstration  of 
some  theorem  in  mathematics. 

His  capacity  as  a  business  man  was  shown  in  the  executive 
talent  displayed  by  him  on  the  Superior  Court  Bench,  where 
there  is  full  scope  for  it,  and  in  which  particular  the  occupants 
of  that  Bench  are  more  often  lacking  than  in  the  knowledge  of 
law.  In  administering  the  criminal  law  upon  the  circuit,  the 
extent  of  punishment  depends  very  largely  upon  the  discretion 
of  the  judge.  Judge  Euffin's  sentences  while  not  cruel  were 
such  as  to  be  a  terror  to  evil  doers.  His  practical  mind  realized 
that  punishment  of  criminals  Avas  required  for  the  protection  of 
law-abiding  men.  Consequently  whenever  he  rode  a  circuit 
crime  decreased.  He  sat  upon  the  Supreme  Court  bench  twenty- 
three  years  consecutively,  from  1829  to  1852,  during  nineteen 
years  of  which  he  was  Chief  Justice.  In  1858  and  '59  he 
again  occupied  a  seat  on  the  bench  for  a  year  and  a  half.  His 
opinions  thus  covered  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  will  be 
found  in  thirty-five  volumes,  from  13  to  45  JN".  C.  Reports, 
inclusive,  and  also  in  the  same  Reports,  vols.  51  and  57.     He 


Thomas  Euffin  15 

wrote  while  on  the  bench  more  opinions  than  any  other  Judge. 
His  opinions  embrace  almost  every  topic  of  the  civil  and  crimi- 
nal law.  They  are  usually  long,  full  and  show  the  concentra- 
tion of  a  powerful  mind  upon  the  subject  in  hand.  His  opin- 
ions are  well  beaten  out.     The  print  of  the  hammer  is  there. 

The  chief  corner-stone  of  his  fame  must  rest  upon  his  recorded 
Judicial  Opinions.  Were  this  a  meeting  of  the  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation it  would  be  appropriate  to  discuss  some  of  the  more 
characteristic  of  them,  but  this  would  be  too  technical  for  this 
occasion  and  time  is  inadequate,  to  give  them  proper  considera- 
tion, xin  inadequate  discussion  would  be  insufficient  for  any 
occasion.  The  verdict  of  the  Bar  and  Bench  of  North  Carolina 
has  long  been  rendered  that  he  was  the  ablest  Judge  who  has 
ever  presided  in  this  State.  He  reached  the  rare  distinction  of 
being  equally  great  in  both  the  common  law  and  as  an  equity 
lawyer.  Chief  Justice  Pearson,  his  immediate  successor,  prob- 
ably equaled  him  as  a  common  law  lawyer,  but  fell  far  short  of 
him  in  the  grasp  and  application  of  the  great  principles  of 
equity. 

While  he  had  due  regard  for  precedent  he  was  great  enough 
not  to.  be  hampered  by  them  in  reaching  a  just  conclusion.  He 
realized  that  the  object  of  the  administration  of  justice  is  to  do 
justice.  In  S.  v.  Moses,  13  N".  C,  452,  he  upheld  the  intent  of 
the  law-making  power  to  do  away  with  "those  fetters  of  form, 
technicality  and  refinement  which  do  not  concern  the  substance 
of  the  charge  and  the  proof  to  support  it."  He  said  that  they 
were  a  reproach  to  the  Bench  and  the  object  of  the  statute  was 
to  disallow  and  do  away  with  the  whole  of  them.  Mr.  Justice 
Holmes  has  recently  in  Paraiso  v.  United  States  (207  U.  S., 
368),  strikingly  characterized  the  technical  construction  of 
indictments  in  favor  of  defendants  as  "the  inability  of  the 
seventeenth  century  common  law  to  understand  or  accept  a 
pleading  that  did  not  exclude  every  misrepresentation  capable 
of  occurring  to  intelligence  fired  with  a  desire  to  pervert." 

In  8.  V.  Benton,  19  N.  C,  131,  he  established  clearly  the  prac- 
tice as  to  trials  for  homicide  and  challenges  to  jurors.  In 
R.  R.  V.  Davis,  19  N.  C,  452,  he  laid  down  the  doctrine  (then 
a  new  one)  of  the  right  of  the  Legislature  to  provide  for  condem- 


16  Thomas  Ruffin 

nation  of  a  right  of  way  for  railroad  purposes  and  that  in  such 
cases  the  landowner  did  not  have  a  constitutional  right  to  a 
trial  by  jury  to  assess  the  damages  which  could  be  assessed  in 
any  manner  provided  by  law,  and  that  payment  of  compensation 
did  not  necessarily  precede  taking  possession  of  the  right  of 
way.  In  S.  v.  Rives,  27  N.  C,  >297,  he  held  that  while  the 
interest  of  a  railroad  company  in  its  right  of  way  can  be  sold 
under  execution  the  corporate  franchise  is  not  thus  liable  to  sale. 
In  Webh  v.  Fulchire,  25  jST.  C,  485,  is  laid  down  the  proposition 
that  where  a  man  is  cheated  out  of  his  money,  though  it  is  in 
playing  at  a  game  forbidden  by  law,  he  may  recover  back  Avhat 
he  has  paid  from  the  person  who  practiced  the  fraud  upon  him. 
The  game  in  this  case  was  "three  card  monte,"  and  the  very 
learned  Judge  seems  as  much  puzzled  as  to  how  the  trick  was 
worked  as  the  simple-minded  plaintiff  himself.  His  dissenting 
opinion  in  S.  v.  Caesar,  39  ^.  C,  391,  is  a  fine  example  of  his 
inexorable  logic. 

In  *S^.  V.  Boyce,  37  N^.  C,  584,  there  is  a  veiy  interesting  dis- 
cussion by  him  of  the  right  of  the  owner  of  slaves  to  permit 
them  to  meet  and  dance  on  his  premises  on  Christmas  Eve  and 
other  holidays,  and  he  shows  his  humanity  by  saying  that  no  one 
should  "feel  aggrieved  that  these  poor  people  should  for  a  short 
space  be  happy  at  finding  the  authority  of  the  master  give  place 
to  his  benignity  and  at  being  freed  from  care,  and  filled  with 
gladness."  When  on  the  Superior  Court  Bench  two  persons 
laid  a  wager  as  to  a  law  point  and  brought  an  action  to  have 
the  correctness  of  his  opinion  determined.  Judge  Ruffin 
promptly  solved  the  difficulty  by  holding  that  the  point  of  law 
in  such  case  was  one  of  fact  and  therefore  the  Court  could  not 
determine  it  and  dismissed  the  action,  making  each  party  pay 
costs  with  an  intimation  that  it  was  leniency  for  the  Court  to  go 
no  further. 

There  not  being  time,  as  I  have  said,  to  discuss  many  interest- 
ing opinions  delivered  in  his  twenty-four  years  upon  the  Bench, 
we  may  mention,  however,  that  he  fixed  two  notable  departures 
in  equity  from  the  English  precedents,  simplifying  our  system 
and  freeing  it  from  embarrassments :  1.  Refusing  the  doctrine 
of  Part  performance  as  a  basis  for  decreeing  the  specific  execu- 
tion of  a  verbal  contract  for  sale  of  land.     2.  Discarding  the 


Thomas  Kuffin  17 

doctrine  of  Vendor's  lien  upon  land  sold  upon  credit.  There 
were  many  other  salutary  reforms  which  he  instituted  by  strong 
and  convincing  argument  in  which  he  has  been  followed  not  only 
by  our  Court  but  in  many  other  States.  His  familiar  knowl- 
edge of  affairs,  especially  banking,  and  his  practical  knowledge 
of  everyday  life  were  of  great  advantage  to  him  on  the  Bench. 
He  was,  as  Tennyson  says  of  Wellington,  "rich  in  saving 
common  sense." 

His  fame  as  a  Judge  is  established  wherever  the  English  law 
is  known.  Mr.  Justice  Miller,  who  was  the  ablest  judge  prob- 
ably ever  on  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  (Marshall  not  excepted), 
said  it  was  recreation  for  him  to  read  Ruffin's  superb  opinions. 
Prof.  Roscoe  Pound  of  Harvard  names  as  the  most  distin- 
guished State  Chief  Justices  in  our  history,  Gibson  of  Penn- 
sylvania ;  Shaw  of  Massachusetts ;  Puffin  of  North  Carolina, 
and  Doe  of  New  Hampshire,  and  adds  that  their  only  competi- 
tors in  national  fame  are  Marshall,  Kent  and  Story.  Professor 
Thayer  in  his  Essay  on  Constitutional  Law  mentions  "Marshall, 
Shaw  and  Puffin,"  as  preeminent  in  that  department.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  quote  the  opinion  of  North  Carolinians  who  are 
unanimous  in  their  admiration,  and  I  will  cite  only  a  letter  from 
Judge  R.  T.  Bennett  who  said  that  it  was  his  deep  conviction 
that  "Chief  Justice  Puffin  is  the  greatest  Judge  who  ever  ad- 
ministered justice  in  an  English  speaking  community." 

The  lawyers  present  who  are  familiar  with  the  opinions  of 
Puffin's  great  contemporaries  on  the  English  Bench — Lords 
Lyndhurst,  Brougham,  and  Denman — will  concur  with  me  that 
Puffin  was  their  equal  in  all  respects.  While  he  was  not  as  ver- 
satile as  Lord  Brougham  he  was  more  a  master  of  our  common 
English  tongue.  He  was  not  as  subtle  in  expression  as  Lynd- 
hurst, whose  shades  of  thought  were  like  shadows  passing  over 
a  bending  field  of  wheat,  but  he  was  a  straightforward,  sincere 
man,  which  John  Copley,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  was  not.  There  came 
not  before  him  the  myriad  forms  of  commercial  law  from  a 
great  metropolis  as  to  Denman,  but  he  was  a  better  lawyer  and 
a  better  Judge  than  either  of  the  three. 

So  widely  was  he  known  that  President  Jackson  contemplated 
placing  him  upon   the   Supreme   Court   Bench   of   the   United 


18  Thomas  Euffin 

States,  but  the  exigencies  of  politics  required  the  selection  of 
another.  Many  years  later  when  George  E.  Badger  was  ap- 
pointed by  a  Whig  President  to  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  but 
was  rejected  by  a  Democratic  Senate,  the  name  of  Chief  Justice 
Ruffin  was  suggested  to  the  President  for  that  honor.  Though 
he  was  not  appointed  it  may  well  be  doubted  if  he  could  have 
been  of  more  sei'vice  to  the  profession  or  have  added  more  to 
his  own  fame  than  he  did  by  remaining  in  a  position  whose 
duties  he  knew  so  well  and  among  a  people  who  honored  him 
so  entirely.  Take  him  all  in  all  we  have  not  "seen  his  like 
again." 

While  this  is  not  the  time  and  place  to  discuss  the  many 
great  opinions  delivered  by  the  Chief  Justice,  opinions  which 
in  every  line  show  deep  thought,  conscientious  consideration  of 
the  points  at  issue,  and  attention  to  the  argument  on  every  side 
and  of  the  precedents,  it  would  perhaps  be  deemed  an  omission 
by  future  students  if  on  this  occasion  no  reference  were  made 
to  the  most  debated  opinion  rendered  by  that  Court — Holce  v. 
Henderson,  15  ]^.  C,  1.  Having  myself  opened  the  attack  upon 
that  opinion,  and  assailed  it  by  every  argument  in  my  power 
until  it  was  overturned,  it  is  due  to  myself,  as  well  as  to  Chief 
Justice  Euffin,  to  say  that  that  opinion  should  be  judged  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  times  in  which  he  labored  and  not  by  the 
views  of  the  present  day.  Had  I  been  one  of  his  associates  at 
that  time  it  is  probable  that  I  should  have  concurred.  I  am 
equally  frank  to  say  that  if  the  Chief  Justice  had  been  on  the 
Bench  when  it  was  reversed  with  the  gathered  light  shed  upon 
that  opinion,  and  its  practical  results  by  the  experience  of 
seventy  years,  he  would,  in  my  opinion,  have  concurred  in  over- 
ruling it.  He  did  not  have  that  pride  of  opinion  which  pre- 
vented him  from  overruling  some  of  his  own  decisions  while  yet 
upon  the  Bench. 

The  women  of  this  day  are  so  rapidly  achieving  their  de- 
mand for  the  suffrage  that  I  fear  they  do  not  sufficiently  appre- 
ciate the  fact  that  the  men  had  a  far  longer  and  more  arduous 
struggle  to  achieve  manhood  suffrage.  For  thousands  of  years 
and  until  a  comparatively  short  time  before  the  American  Revo- 
lution, suffrage  was  unknown,  and  then  only  in  England  where 


Thomas  Euffin  19 

it  was  confined  to  large  property  liolders  and  even  that  controlled 
by  governmental  influence.  It  is  true  that  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  and  the  Declaration  at  Philadelphia  penned  by 
Thomas  Jefferson,  declared  the  equality  of  all  men,  but  he  is  a 
poor  student  of  history  who  thinks  that  suffrage  was  then  con- 
ferred upon  the  masses.  Both  in  our  State  Constitution  at 
Halifax  in  1776  and  by  the  Federal  Constitution  in  1787  the 
people  were  permitted  to  vote  for  only  one-sixth  of  the  govern- 
ment, i.  e.,  the  lower  house  of  the  legislative  body.  Suffrage 
was  new,  the  propertied  classes  were  alarmed  at  giving  power  to 
the  masses,  and  they  had  reason  to  be  because  the  people  were 
unused  to  the  exercise  of  power,  and  were  illiterate.  In  j^orth 
Carolina  the  Senate  was  made  elective  by  men  who  owned  fifty 
acres  of  land  or  more.  The  Governor,  all  the  State  officers,  and 
the  Judges  were  made  elective  by  the  Legislature,  and  the  Judges 
for  life,  and  the  county  officers,  including  the  sheriff,  were  made 
elective  by  magistrates  who  themselves  were  chosen  by  the  Leg- 
islature, and  the  clerks  of  the  Superior  Court  were  appointed 
by  the  Judges  to  hold  for  life.  It  was  not  considered  safe  to 
jeopardize  the  rights  of  property  by  giving  the  people  any  more 
than  .the  mere  semblance  of  power  in  the  election  of  the  lower 
house.  When  the  Supreme  Court  was  created  in  1818  it  was 
not,  as  now,  provided  for  in  the  Constitution  but  was  estab- 
lished by  an  Act  of  the  Legislature,  and  that  body  could  at  any 
time  repeal  the  Act  and  abolish  the  Court.  Regularly  at  every 
session  of  the  General  Assembly  for  many  years  a  bill  to  that 
effect  was  introduced.  Under  these  circumstances  an  Act  was 
passed  to  take  out  of  office  the  clerks  of  the  court  who  held  for 
life  under  judicial  appointment,  and  to  make  them  elective  by 
the  people  at  the  polls.  This  was  considered  the  first  step  to- 
wards abolishing  all  the  checks  which  for  nearly  sixty  years, 
under  the  Halifax  Constitution,  had  protected  society  and  prop- 
erty against  what  the  ruling  class  considered  the  dangerous 
power  of  the  mob.  In  this  emergency  seeing  matters  as  they 
understood  the  situation  and  fearing  the  power  of  an  unedu- 
cated, and  as  they  thought,  a  dangerous  constituency,  the  Judges 
held  that  this  act  took  from  a  man  an  office  in  which  he  had  a 
life  interest  and  bestowed  it  upon  another,  and  not  unnaturally 
they  held  such  act  to  be,  in  the  phraseology  of  the  present  day, 


20  Thomas  Ruffin 

not  "due  process  of  law,"  and  that  it  deprived  the  officer  of  his 
property  without  compensation. 

It  is  true  that  this  opinion  was  not  followed  in  other  States 
nor  by  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  but  conditions  elsewhere  were 
different.  In  1868  when  the  new  Constitution  was  established 
all  the  life  Judges  were  turned  out  of  office  and  those  who  suc- 
ceeded took  their  offices  in  absolute  denial  of  the  principle  laid 
down  in  Hohe  v.  Henderson.  Yet  with  a  strange  inconsistency 
when  four  years  later  the  Democratic  party  came  into  power  the 
Republican  Supreme  Court  revived  the  doctrine  of  Holce  v. 
Henderson  in  entire  denial  of  the  right  of  the  legislative  depart^ 
ment  of  the  government  to  take  control  of  the  official  machinery 
to  execute  their  views.  They  extended  the  doctrine,  and  when 
again  the  same  condition  occurred  in  the  advent  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  to  power  in  1900  the  Republican  members  of  the 
Court  extended  the  application  of  that  decision  from  places 
whose  salary  as  in  Patrick's  case  was  $2  per  year  to  the  control 
of  all  the  offices  of  the  State  which  had  been  created  by  legis- 
lative enactment.  Under  these  circumstances  a  decision  which 
had  seemed  not  unreasonable  when  rendered  in  1833  by  so  great 
a  court  as  Ruffin,  Gaston  and  Daniel,  but  which  by  its  expan- 
sion had  in  later  times  assumed  the  character  of  a  judicial  veto 
of  the  people's  control  of  their  own  government  through  their 
Legislature,  could  no  longer  be  sustained.  It  was  seen  by  a 
practical  people  that  such  a  system  was  subject  to  abuse  and  was 
no  longer  workable.  Assailed  by  a  series  of  dissenting  opinions 
which  brought  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  the  people  and  the 
Bar  of  the  State,  it  was  debated  and  considered  and  with  that 
sound  practical  sense  which  enables  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to 
govern  itself,  when  new  Judges  were  placed  upon  the  Bench 
they  promptly  overruled  the  decision  in  Holce  v.  Henderson 
which  the  Judges  who  had  appealed  to  it  had  so  often  held  to  be 
"that  mine  from  which  so  much  pure  gold  has  been  dug."  This 
meant  simply — "that  decision  which  has  been  so  useful  in  re- 
taining our  friends  in  office." 

In  overruling  the  decision  in  Holce  v.  Henderson  every 
Judge  who  concurred  in  that  action  (Mial  v.  Ellington,  134  N. 
C,  131),  expressed  the  highest  reverence  for  the  Court  that  had 
rendered  it,  and  reversed  the  opinion,  as  Ruffin  himself  would 


Thomas  Ruffin  21 

Lave  reversed  it,  because  the  legal  thought  of  the  country  and 
the  experience  of  our  State  had  demonstrated  that,  however  wise 
and  just  the  decision  had  seemed  when  rendered,  it  had  become 
out  of  line  with  the  thoughts  and  the  needs  of  a  new  generation, 
and  the  Constitution,  as  we  now  understand  its  spirit. 

There  are  many  interesting  details  and  many  sidelights  that 
might  be  thrown  upon  the  character  and  career  of  Chief  Justice 
Ruffin  by  citing  from  his  own  correspondence  and  that  of  others 
of  that  time  and  by  quoting  from  the  newspapers  of  that  era, 
but  such  matters  will  be  more  appropriate  in  a  complete  biogra- 
phy which  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  member  of  the  profession 
will  yet  write  of  him.  It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  his  name 
given  at  the  baptismal  font  was  Thomas  Carter  Ruffin.  He 
still  retained  that  name  for  some  years  after  he  began  the  prac- 
tise of  law,  for  Judge  Murphey  so  addressed  him  in  a  letter 
■written  early  in  1814.  However  when  he  became  a  member  of 
the  Legislature  in  1813  he  signed  the  roll  as  simply  Thomas 
Ruffin.  The  eagle  had  begim  to  wing  his  flight.  He  saw  the 
future  before  him  and  laid  aside  every  encumbrance  in  the  "race 
for  the  immortal  garland,"  as  Milton  styles  it.  Such  instances 
are  not  rare.  Two  young  men  who  grew  up  to  manhood  as 
Stephen  Grover  Cleveland  and  Thomas  Woodrow  Wilson  en- 
tered the  White  House  as  Grover  Cleveland  and  Woodrow 
Wilson.  Hiram  Ulysses  Grant,  by  the  mistake  of  his  member 
of  Congress  in  naming  his  appointee  to  West  Point,  later  wrote 
his  name  as  commander  in  chief  of  the  armies  and  president  as 
IT.  S.  Grant,  and  there  is  authority  that  the  greatest  of  them  all, 
received  at  baptism  the  name  of  George  William  Washington. 
Not  to  go  further  afield  the  pale  Italian  lad  who  on  the  bap- 
tismal registry  and  among  his  friends  and  family  bore  a  name 
of  eleven  syllables  as  ISTapoleone  di  BuonajDarte,  when  fame  be- 
gan to  fill  her  bugle  with  the  music  of  his  name  dropped 
half  of  those  syllables  and  climbed  to  the  supremest  heights 
of  power  as  ISTapoleon  Bonaparte.  His  great,  though  hostile, 
biographer.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  had  the  justice  to  say  that  "surely 
he  was  entitled  to  write  as  he  chose  the  name  that  he  himself  had 
made  famous."  Whatever  the  reason  that  moved  young  Ruffin 
to  shorten  his  name  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  when  he  reached 
the  icy,  storm-swept  height  which  he  had  viewed  from  the  valley 


22  Thomas  RrFFiN 

lie  wrote  "on  the  dusty  roll  the  ages  keep"  his  name  as  Thomas 
Euffin. 

Chief  Justice  Euffin  Avas  a  delegate  to  the  Peace  Conference  of 
1861,  and  after  its  failure  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Secession  Con- 
vention of  1861  from  the  county  of  Alamance.  He  then  lived  at 
the  "Hermitage,"  formerly  the  residence  of  Judge  Murphey, 
about  three  miles  south  of  the  town  of  Graham,  and  was  active 
like  another  Cincinnatus  in  the  pursuits  of  agriculture.  iVfter 
the  war,  owing  to  changed  conditions  he  sold  his  farm  and 
returned  to  Hillsboro  where  he  died  15  January,  1870,  after  an 
illness  of  four  days,  in  the  83d  year  of  his  age.  He  raised  a 
family  of  thirteen  children,  out  of  fourteen  born  to  him,  and  his 
descendants  are  among  the  best  known  and  most  prominent 
people  of  the  State.  One  of  his  sons,  Thomas  Ruffin,  Jr.,  be- 
came a  Judge  of  high  distinction  both  on  the  Superior  and 
Supreme  Court.  The  companion  of  his  life,  a  bride  at  fifteen 
and  a  wife  for  more  than  sixty  years,  survived  him  many  years 
to  receive  the  love  and  affection  of  her  numerous  posterity  and 
the  homage  of  a  wide  circle  of  friends. 

Like  other  men  he  must  have  had  his  defects  and  his  disap- 
pointments. His  great  and  shining  quality  was  that  he  over- 
came them.  The  promise,  as  I  understand  it,  is  to  "him  that 
overcometh." 

Look  at  his  tall,  sinewy  figure  as  you  shall  soon  see  it,  in 
monumental  bronze;  his  firm  mouth;  his  nose  like  an  eagle's 
beak,  his  flashing  eyes.  He  was  a  man  of  iron  will,  a  man  of 
determination,  a  man  who  would  not  be  denied.  He  was  every 
inch  a  man  among  men.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  the 
origin  of  family  names  say  that  "Ruffin"  is  Xonnan-French. 
He  must  have  been  the  descendant  of  some  Viking  of  old,  who 
standing  on  the  prow  of  his  storm-tossed  vessel,  gazed  intent 
upon  the  pleasant  land  of  Normandy  that  he  came  to  take  for 
his  own,  and  he  took  it.  Fortune  and  fame  came  not  to  him 
as  an  unwooed  bride.     With  him,  as  with  all  great  men. 

"While  others  slept, 
He  was  toiling  upward  in  the  night." 

He  had  a  "frame  of  adamant  and  a  soul  of  fire."  His  eighty- 
three  years  attest  his  splendid  physical  organization,  and  his 


Thomas  Ruffin  23 

life  work  proves  his  mental  capacity  in  every  sphere  of  activity 
and  his  intense  application. 

It  was  Jeanie  Deans  who  said,  "When  you  come  to  die  it  is 
not  what  you  have  done  for  yourself,  but  what  you  have  done 
for  others  you  will  think  on  most  pleasantly."  Through  all 
the  work  that  brings  abiding  remembrance — that  fame  which  is 
but  another  word  for  a  people's  gratitude,  there  runs  ever  the 
two  words  "Duty"  and  "Sacrifice."  We  honor  the  soldier  be- 
cause he  endures  hardship  and  stands  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  his 
life  for  his  country.  The  keynote,  the  corner  stone  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  worship  of  Him  who  gave  His  life  for 
others.  The  mere  attainment  of  wealth  or  of  office  will  never 
bring  remembrance  or  honor  after  death.  That  is  reserved  for 
those,  who  like  this  man,  "live  laborious  days  and  scorn  de- 
lights," to  serve  the  public  good,  and  for  this  do  men  honor  and 
remember  them. 

After  long  study  of  his  career  and  his  opinions  I  have  found 
no  estimate  clearer  or  more  forceful  than  that  made  by  the  dis- 
tinguished Senator  who  now  represents  the  historic  county  of 
Orange,  Mr.  ISTash,  who  in  summing  up  the  survey  of  his 
services  has  said  "Ruffin  was  great  as  a  lawyer,  great  as  a 
Judge,  great  as  a  financier  and  as  a  fanner,  a  rugged  and  in- 
domitable soul,  in  a  frame  of  iron,  made  to  conquer,  and  con- 
quering every  difficulty  on  every  side." 

ISTo  mortuary  inscription  has  ever  been  more  true  and  just 
than  the  quotation  from  the  poet  which  has  been  engraved  upon 
the  marble  memorial  to  the  great  Chief  Justice  which  stands 
beneath  the  shadows  of  St.  Matthew's  Church : 

"A  man  resolved  and  steady  to  his  trust, 
Inflexible  to  ill  and  obstinately  just." 


PRESENTATION 


By  Hon.  J.  Cbawford  Biggs,  President  of  the  North 
Caeolina  Bar  Association. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Your  Excellency,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  am  commissioned  to  perform  a  most  pleasing  task  on  this 
interesting  occasion.  These  exercises  are  full  of  deep  interest 
and  significance,  because  they  are  an  outward  manifestation  of 
our  State  pride,  expressing  itself  in  a  new  field  of  human 
endeavor,  in  so  far  as  this  State  is  concerned. 

All  ]^orth  Carolinians  are  justly  proud  of  the  achievements  of 
our  great  men  of  the  past  in  the  various  activities  of  life,  but 
we  must  recognize  the  fact  that  we  have  done  little  to  perpetuate 
the  proud  heritage  which  they  have  bequeathed  to  us.  North 
Carolinians  have  been  content  to  make  history,  but  have  left  it 
largely  to  others  to  record  or  preserve  it.  "VYe  have  been  con- 
tent and  satisfied  with  the  knowledge  that  no  State  in  the  Union 
possessed  a  grander  past;  and  until  recent  years  we  have  not 
bestirred  ourselves  to  see  that  North  Carolina  occupied  its  true 
place  in  history.  We  have  not  exerted  ourselves  to  stimulate  a 
healthy  State  pride,  by  preserving  in  marble  and  bronze  the 
records  of  the  past,  by  erecting  statues  and  suitable  memorials 
to  commemorate  the  name  and  fame  of  the  great  men  whose 
services  have  enriched  and  glorified  the  traditions  of  our  Com- 
monwealth. It  is  from  the  experience  of  the  past  that  we  draw 
inspiration  for  the  future,  and  any  act  which  emblazons  in  im- 
perishable form  the  great  deeds  of  our  ancestors  should  be  re- 
garded with  favor. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina  has  an  honorable 
career  covering  more  than  a  century.  During  all  these  years, 
the  Bench  and  Bar  of  North  Carolina  have  exerted  a  command- 
ing, yea  a  controlling  influence  in  the  life  of  our  State.  We 
have  erected  statues  to  the  statesmen  and  heroes  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary "War,  of  the  Civil  War  and  of  the  Spanish-American 
War.  We  have  builded  monuments  to  commemorate  the  valor 
of  the  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy  and  to  perpetuate  the  heroism 


Thomas  Ruffin  25 

and  self-sacrifice  of  our  women  in  that  titanic  struggle.  We 
have  in  like  manner  honored  the  memories  of  some  of  our  gi-eat 
leaders  of  education. 

But  this  is  the  first  statue  in  the  long  history  of  our  State  to 
he  erected  to  any  Judge,  and  it  is  especially  appropriate  that 
this  signal  honor  to  the  Bench  should  he  accorded  to  that  jurist 
who,  not  only  among  us  but  throughout  this  ISTation,  is  justly 
regarded  as  the  greatest  judge  who  has  ever  adorned  our  highest 
judicial  tribunal  and  whose  life,  character  and  services  have 
been  so  splendidly  portrayed  this  evening. 

On  behalf  of  the  North  Carolina  Bar  Association,  composed 
of  over  six  hundred  lawyers,  who  desire  to  show  in  some  measure 
their  regard  and  esteem  for  one  who  embodied  the  highest  ideals 
of  our  profession,  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  the  State  of 
ISTorth  Carolina,  through  your  Excellency,  this  magnificent 
statue  of  Chief  Justice  Thomas  Buffin.  May  it  stand  for  all 
time  as  a  fitting  memorial  of  him  whom  it  represents,  and  may 
present  and  future  generations  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  and  the 
people  draw  from  it  inspiration  for  high  and  unselfish  service 
to  the  cause  of  jurisprudence  as  exemplified  in  his  magnificent 
career. 


ACCEPTANCE 


By  Hon.  Locke  Craig,  Governor  of  N^orth  Carolina. 

We  have  listened  witli  pleasure  and  profit  to  the  fitting  and 
eloquent  tributes  pronounced  upon  Judge  Ruffin. 

It  has  been  the  duty  of  the  State  to  erect  a  statute  to  our 
prominent  jurist.  We  accept  this  splendid  statue  with  grati- 
tude to  those  who  gave  it.  In  just  recognition  of  the  character 
and  the  intellect  of  the  great  Chief  Justice,  we  will  place  it  in 
the  entrance  hall  of  this  building,  the  place  for  the  memorials 
of  the  highest  and  noblest  of  our  men  in  all  generations.  There 
it  will  live  through  the  centuries,  typifying  in  majestic  form  the 
majestic  man  of  pure  purpose  and  master  mind.  In  the  plastic 
years  of  our  history  he  gave  form  and  order  to  our  jurispru- 
dence. He  interpreted  statutes  and  constitutions  with  the  wis- 
dom of  the  sages,  and  delivered  judgments  that  are  enduring 
precedents  of  righteousness.  He  was  our  judge,  a  distinctive 
product  of  North  Carolina,  but  his  influence  is  beyond  the  limi- 
tations of  the  State  and  the  ISTation.  He  is  recognized  every- 
where as  one  of  the  greatest  judges  that  our  race  has  produced. 
In  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  where  the  English  jurispru- 
dence exercises  its  beneficent  rule,  he  speaks  and  will  speak  to 
legislatures,  to  courts,  and  to  executives,  directing  and  enlight- 
ening them  in  the  way  of  truth  and  in  the  conception  and  the 
administration  of  justice. 

We  raise  the  statue  in  gratitude  that  the  Old  North  State  too, 
has  produced  a  judge  who  gives  laws  to  the  judges  of  the 
earth.  We  raise  the  statue  to  teach  to  us  and  to  our  children 
the  power  and  the  majesty  of  an  exalted  life. 


